Page 32 of Ensnared (The Dragon Captured #1)

I ’ve always been a light sleeper. Most of my life, I didn’t even need an alarm clock. If I knew what time I needed to wake up, I’d usually wake up a few minutes before my alarm was set to go off.

After spending quite a few tournaments in the same hotel, Gideon surely knows that.

When he taps on the door, the noise startles me and I open my eyes.

He doesn’t wait before coming inside, which is why he finds me with my head on Axel’s chest. His bare chest. My cheek’s pressed against it, all smooth, golden-brown skin and nearly rock-hard muscle.

I try to sit up, but Axel’s arm wraps more tightly around me, his bicep bunching to hold me in place.

“So you just barge into people’s rooms?” Axel asks.

Gideon’s eyes widen. “This isn’t your room.”

Axel shifts and eases the rest of my body back down against him. “I was here all night with Liz, helping her to recover. I think that makes it mine.” He’s smiling a lazy, possessive smile that I’ve never seen before. At least, not on him.

“She looks fine,” Gideon says. “You should get out.”

“She was nearly dead yesterday when I reached her,” Axel says.

“From what?” Gideon’s scanning the room now, as if the threat might still be lurking here.

“Nothing you could have helped her with.”

“If she was almost dead, you didn’t do much either.”

“So much for stretching, yawning, and getting up peacefully.” I shove away from Axel, who doesn’t try to stop me this time. “Both of you should get out.”

“It’s good you’re awake.” Axel looks utterly unconcerned that he’s lying back in the middle of my bed, naked other than his black pants. “Azar called a convocation today. I’ll need to get going pretty soon.”

That drags my attention away from his bare belly. “A convocation? Is he graduating?”

Axel frowns. “He’s summoned all the blessed. He has an announcement to make.”

That sounds ominous. I touch Axel’s hand. “Will you be alright? Is it something bad?”

He glances down at our hands and smiles, and I can’t tell whether it’s to reassure me that he’s going to be fine, or whether he’s pleased that I touched him. The bond shows that he’s happy—it’s a light green. “I’ll be perfectly fine.”

“I want to come,” I whisper. “Can I?”

He shakes his head. “It won’t be a safe place for humans.”

“What’s this convocation about?” Gideon asks.

Axel’s nostrils flare like he’d forgotten Gideon was at the door. “None of your business.”

“If it’s Elizabeth’s business, then it’s mine too.”

Axel purses his lips as his gaze shifts to Gideon. “Nothing in Houston is your business, human. And nothing that concerns Liz is your business, either.”

“He’s just trying to help,” I say. “But what’s it for? Do you know?”

Axel shrugs. “No one ever really knows what to expect with Azar—he’s a bit unpredictable, like most flame blessed—but I suspect he’s going to kill Ocharta.”

Kill Ocharta? That name sounds familiar to me. I rack my brain to try and figure out why, and it finally hits me.

I am Ocharta, strike blessed. I have need of you. That’s what she said, when she called my mother to her side and changed her hair to silver. I had been calling her Princess Petunia in my head, but I already knew her name.

I bolt upright in the bed, the covers sliding down around my waist. “Axel, he can’t kill her.”

He frowns. “But she tried to kill you. I thought you’d want her dead.”

“What happens if she dies?”

Axel shrugs. “Not much, I should think. The strike blessed will choose another to lead their group here. When Azar returns, if he hasn’t found the heart, her family could retaliate, but it’s risky, retaliating against a Prince of the Flame. They probably won’t dare to do anything.”

“No.” I shake my head. “I mean, what happens to a dragon’s ensnared if the dragon dies?”

“Oh.” Axel frowns. “They die, too.”

“That’s awful.” Gideon looks even more distressed than I am.

Axel shrugs.

“Of course he doesn’t care about the humans,” Gideon says.

“I’ve been caring for my human,” Axel says, “ and her annoying friend.” He frowns. “I think I’ve been more than patient and understanding.” He narrows his eyes and climbs off the bed, the muscles in his stomach rippling as he does it. Apparently dragons don’t really store body fat in either form.

“I thought you didn’t sleep,” I say. “But you were in here all night?”

His half-smile’s pretty lethal. “The best way to heal my human,” Axel says, speaking slowly and drawing out every word, “was to spend some time with her.” He pauses again. “Skin to skin.”

“Okay,” I say. “Well, I appreciate that.” I flex my leg and move both arms back and forth. “A lot, actually. I can’t believe you fixed everything. I thought I’d lost enough blood that?—”

“You lost blood?” Gideon sounds frantic. “What happened?”

“It’s a long story,” I say.

“You should have plenty of time to tell me, since he has to leave, right?” Gideon glares pointedly at Axel. “He has a convocation to go to alone.”

Axel frowns.

“I need to talk to him for a moment,” I say. “Can you give us a bit?”

Gideon nods. But he doesn’t leave.

“Now?”

Gideon blinks. “Wait, did you mean me?”

“Yes,” I say. “I need to talk to Axel.”

Axel’s watching us with a broad smirk.

“Oh.” Gideon bumps the doorframe with his toe. “Sure. I’ll go make some breakfast.”

“You do that,” Axel says.

“Stop,” I say.

Gideon’s hand squeezes the door so tightly that it turns white, but then he releases it and stomps down the stairs.

“He’s a real hothead.”

“You’re not helping.” I spin on Axel. “Can you just stop?”

“Stop?” He raises both eyebrows.

“Never mind,” I say. “I need a bigger favor.”

“A favor?” He takes a step toward me.

I swallow. “I know this is a big ask, and I know she was going to hurt you through me, and I know Azar’s mad too, but can you beg him not to kill her?”

Axel exhales.

“My mom?—”

“The woman who was hacking at you with a sword?” His brow furrows.

“How do you know?”

For a split second, Axel looks nervous. But then he shrugs. “Azar took complete reports from people who were there, of course,” he says. “And they said that Ocharta’s ensnared was attacking you.”

“Well, she was, because Ocharta ordered it,” I say. “But she’s still my mom. I know she wouldn’t have done that if she had a choice.”

Axel steps closer still, his eyes on mine. “You humans—your emotions are complicated. If someone was trying to kill me, I wouldn’t step in to protect them.”

“She spent the past twenty years protecting me,” I say. “And now, because of circumstances outside of her control, she’s being forced to harm me. You’d do the same.”

He inhales slowly and then exhales again. “I’d still focus on the situation at hand. How she treated you before is admirable, but if she’s your enemy now. . .” He throws his hands up in the air. “You can’t keep yourself safe by ignoring those who would harm you.”

“You won’t do it?” My heart feels like it’s splitting in two.

Axel’s jaw tightens, and he looks at the doorway. “I didn’t say that.”

I reach for his face to smooth away the frown lines without thinking, but when his eyes cut back toward me, my hand freezes, inches from his face.

“I can ask Azar, but I don’t know what he’ll say.”

“You’re his best friend, right?”

Axel’s eyes flash. “He was very upset yesterday.” He turns away from me and begins to pace.

“You were injured—badly—because of your connection to me. They resent me for my connection to him. Azar, rightfully, feels like this was all his fault. He wants to fix it.” His head, from across the room, snaps toward mine.

“He wants to keep you safe.” He swallows. “I agree with him.”

“Are you saying that if someone touches me, you want them dead?” I can’t keep my lip from twitching. “That’s pretty corny.”

He crosses the room in three steps. “It’s not corny, Liz. It’s the world I live in. You eliminate threats, or they eliminate you.”

“You didn’t kill me when we met, and I stabbed you.”

He’s right in front of me, shirtless, breathing heavily, his chest rising and falling, and I think about that first moment we met. I wanted to kill him. I tried. But instead of killing me, he agreed to help my siblings.

“You didn’t kill me, even when I was threatening you and your friends.”

“You were never a threat to me.” His hand lifts, his index finger brushing against my temple. “At least, nothing to the risk you pose now.”

I can’t breathe. What’s he saying? “I’m not a risk,” I whisper.

He drags his finger down the side of my face, and then runs it slowly down the side of my neck.

It stops on the spot where my shoulder joins my neck.

His eyes are staring at that point like they could bore through it.

“When I thought—when I realized who took you.” He shakes his head, his hand dropping back to his side. “I’ve never been more full of rage.”

Anger’s a masking emotion. That’s what my mother always said. “You were angry because you were scared.”

He doesn’t nod, or say yes, or agree in any way, but he doesn’t disagree or call me a liar either.

He doesn’t shake his head. He just stares into my eyes.

His burnished gold eyes, eyes that don’t feel like a human’s do, eyes that don’t connect to a human soul, stare into mine with what looks and feels a lot like longing.

“Maybe you do feel some emotion after all.” I shrug. “Or maybe you were just worried about how you’d feel if I died.”

“Ocharta.” He chokes. “I can’t spare her life, Liz.”

“Please,” I say. “I’m begging you. If you have any regard for me at all—” My voice breaks.

I’m his property. I’m nothing to him—a liability.

Ocharta’s death helps mitigate the risk I pose to his life.

Nothing I say is going to change what he does.

“If I matter to you at all , please ask Azar to spare her.” I’ve just set myself up to be disappointed.

I know I don’t matter to him, not in that way, but now I’m hoping that I do.